Mysterious Lansing vandal damaged ACD cell phone towers

THURSDAY, Oct. 24 — Local cellular phone and Internet provider Advanced Communications & Data has been hit with a bizarre string of vandalism to its cell phone boosters and is offering a $5,000 reward for help finding and convicting the culprit.

Damage disabled six cell phone towers, which is about 10% of ACD’s local network, at a cost of about $30,000 to fix, ACD’s CEO, Kevin Schoen, said. Lansing police and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are involved in the investigation, Schoen said.

Between 11 p.m. Oct. 9 and 1:30 a.m. Oct. 10, a suspect severed the cables with a hatchet or axe at the base of four utility poles outside Sparrow Hospital in Lansing. The wiring for the cell-phone towers comes out of the ground and is affixed to the telephone polls in order to augment service and provide more data bandwidth. The vandal cut the cables but did not steal any of the wiring.

Later, two more towers were vandalized in the same way outside the Meijer store in East Lansing at noon Sunday and again at 7 p.m. Monday near the Impression 5 Science Center in downtown Lansing, compelling ACD to go public with the destruction.

A suspect was picked up by cameras at the first four locations near the hospital. Schoen said police were still attempting to view camera footage outside the other two locations. The suspect may be getting more brazen, as the last two incidents occurred during broad daylight after the others came in the middle of the night.

The suspect is 5 feet to 5 feet 3 inches tall and wore light-colored jeans, light-colored shoes and a light-colored sweatshirt. The person also had a camo backpack and a tan floppy fisherman’s hat.

Schoen speculated about a motive for the vandalism, from someone targeting the towers in order to learn about how to disrupt a large event to a disgruntled former employee or contractor, or someone alarmed about the supposedly deleterious effects of cellular waves, as some people believe.

Cell phone reception was never lost; these boosters are installed to provide backup in times of heavy usage. Repairs of $30,000 were made within a day after the vandalism was discovered.

Damaging communications equipment is a felony under Michigan law, punishable by up to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine. People with information are asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAKUP.